All We Are
by Sunny23
Summary: I pretty much suck at summaries, so let's just leave it be xD * The title of the fanfic is based on a song from OneRepublic, showing that people are what they are, without any labels to define them.
1. An Unusual Morning

**Chapter 1: "An unusual morning"**

It was another day in Milwalkee, Minneapolis and Lindsey Carlile was getting out of her limo and heading for her school, when she was interrupted by a voice.

"Lindsey!!" Kate Miller, her best friend, called, running to her. Her light brown hair went in all the directions and she soon arrived to her destiny.

"I waited for you, but you didn't show up..." she commented.

"Good morning to you too." she replied, lowering her head to catch her breath. "And I was late because I fell asleep, sorry."

"If you had gone to the party last night with me, I'd understand why you fell aslee. But you stayed at home, finishing some homework."

"Lindsey, some of us actually need to try hard to pass the year, you know..:"

"Don't you have tutors? They can help you."

"Your idea of 'helping' is doing the work for you."

"Well, isn't that what 'helping' means?" Lindsey asked, like it was a totally normal thing. Kate sighed.

"There's Aaron, you should go and say 'hi'." Kare warned, seeing a boy with light brown hair and a huge smile on his face approaching them. Lindsey's face lit and she ran to the boy, kissing him.

"Good morning, Linds. Good morning, Kate." he greeted, turning to face his friend. Kate waved at him.

"Well, as much as I like to disturb couples, I should go. We'll talk later, okay?" she said, walking away. She entered the big building and headed to the third floor, for Biology.

"Good morning!" a girl with black hair and bright eyes greeted, sitting at the same desk as Kate. She smiled.

"Good morning, Hilary."

"You should've gone with us, really. Linds and I had loads of fun, looking at the boys. And, of course, that's not all we did with them..." the girl named Hilary told her, smirking.

"I was studying. And Lindsey has a boyfriend, she's not supposed to be flirting with boys at parties."

"Take it easy, nothing happened. You think too much, Kate..."

"You're the ones who don't think enough. I'm not like you, I don't live for parties."

"I really don't get you, kate. You have everything most girls here want: intelligence, good looks, popularity, and a lot of guys after you. Why can't you just enjoy it?"

"Because that's not me. I like to have my feet on the ground."

"So, at least, take care of your image. You're making us look bad..." she commented, trying to put a clip on her hair. Kate dodged her.

"In that case, tell Lindsey she doesn't need to spend more time with me." she replied, going to another desk.

"What happened?" Lindsey asked, sitting next to her. Hilary shrugged her shoulders.

"Kate's been having identity crisis again."

"Hum... I'll talk with her after class, I'm sure we can work this out."

Kate looked for a desk and she found one, with a blonde girl with brown eyes sitting there, very quiet. Kate recognized her immediately. Her name was Jackie Simmons, and she was the typical smart girl that no one thought could be popular.

"Erm... Jackie, do you mind if I sit with you?" she asked. Jackie looked away from her book and stared at her from head to toes.

"You're Kate Miller, why would you want to sit with me?" she replied, in a low voice.

"Oh, if you don't want to, I'll find another desk."

"You can sit, it's okay. But I just think it's strange that you're being nice to me."

"Am I supposed to be mean to you?"

"You never talked to me since I entered this school and I'm here for three years. Actually, I'm in the same class as you for three years. I guess you see my point..." she explained. Kate lowered her head, ashamed. She knew it was all because she was spending a lot of time with Lindsey, Hilary and the other popular girls. The truth is she never wanted for it to happen, but Lindsey became popular and Kate, as her best friend, became popular as well.

"I didn't... I'm sorry... You're absolutely right..." she mumbled, walking to another desk.

"Geez, you don't need to be like that..." Jackie replied, feeling guilty. "You can sit here, if you want to."

Kate turned around to face her and she smiled, sitting next to her. Then, a boy entered the classroom. He looked a bit lonely and went to his seat with his head lowered. He took a notepad out of his backpack and started to draw something. Kate watched him in silence, quite intrigued.

"Kevin Richards." Jackie said, noticing Kate's sudden attention on him. "He's quite the loner, nobody really likes him, because everybody thinks he only got in this school because his mom's sleeping with the principal."

"What?" Kate asked, horrified. "Even if that was true, it's still none of theit business!"

"They're just pissed, because he's treated differently than the others..."

"Well, in case nobody noticed, half the students here got in this school because of their parents and the influence they have on important people!" Kate said, but she lowered her voice when the teacher entered the room.

In the meanwhile, in the floor below, Michelle Hale quickly ran in the halls, until she got to History class, since she was late.

"Miss Hale, this it the fourth time you're late in less than two weeks." the teacher informed, as Michelle opened the door.

"Sorry, professor Reed. I fell asleep, I was finishing some homework."

"So, I assume that you did the essay about World War Two?"

Michelle slapped her forehead. How could she had forgotten?

"Professor, I..." she started.

"For your homework, you'll do that essay with twice as more words, plus the normal homework I'll tell everybody to do. Go sit." he said, coldly. Michelle sighed and sat down.

"What kind of homework were you doing to make you forget about the essay?" Brooke Miller, her friend, asked.

"I was studying for tomorrow's Calculus test."

"Hum... Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but the test is today."

"What? Today?? But the teacher said it was tomorrow!"

"Oh, yeah. We rescheduled it on one of the days you were late. I thought you knew."

"I didn't! Now what?"

"Michelle, relax. The test is in the afternoon, I'll study with you during lunch time. Besides, you're probably the smartest girl in our class, I'm sure you'll do fine." Brooke guaranteed, smiling. Michelle nodded, not very convinced. The truth is she was two years younger than everybody else, since she skipped a couple of grades, because of her intelligence. But things were so hard now... And not only in the studies part... It seemed like nobody got along with her. Most people didn't like her, because they thought she was treated differently, others just underestimated her because of her 'sweet image'. Michelle just wanted to be accepted and have friends. She wanted to be popular and feel like she was actually part of something...

What she didn't know was that she was being watched by three boys, a few rows behinf her.

"I think she'll do." a boy named Chad Hanson said. He was just one of the most popular boys in school, and he had all the girls after him.

"Chad, she's the youngest girl here, are you really going to choose her?" one of them replied.

"Relax, Eric. If she goes to the party tonight and she drinks, I don't need to do much. She's a little girl, she mustn't have action in a while."

"And how can you be sure that she's going to the party?" Eric said, frowning.

"Simple. I'll talk with Hilary, and it's easy from there. She talks with Kate, she invites her sister, and Michelle will go for sure. Piece of cake."

"Chad, Eric's right, she's just a kid." another ne of them said.

"For your information, Tom, she's not much younger than you. And I won't do anything she doesn't want to. I mean... She'll be under the influence of alcohol, she won't even realize it."

"You can have every girl in school, why her?" the boy named Tom continued. Chad stopped looking at Michelle and stared at him. It was almost like he was evaluating him.

"Fine, I won't mess with her... For tonight." he informed, seeing relief invade Tom's body. Then, he smirked. "You're the one giving her action tonight, Tommy."

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh, come on, don't play innocent with me. You haven't scored with a girl in ages. Enjoy the party! I'm just saying that people won't call you a '_bad boy_' forever. If you want to be known, you need to do something big."

"Like taking advantage of a girl?"

"Stop seeing it like that, it's going to be an awesome party. And you're just giving her something she wants for a long time and that you're needing as well. You'll see, this is going to be a kickass party." he commented, still smirking. It was settled, if Tom wouldn't do it, Chad would still have more girls from him. And, if he failed the agreement, the two of them would have a lot of problems...


	2. A Traumatizing Night

**Chapter 2: "A traumatizing night"**

After the lesson, Chad went to see Hilary and she was pretty surprised with his request.

"I was inviting Kate anyway, what's the rush?" she asked, intrigued.

"I need Michelle to come."

"Michelle…? That younger girl that skipped a few grades?"

"Yeah, her."

"Well, I can talk to Kate and she'll talk with Brooke… That way, Michelle will go. But why?"

"Tommy and I made a deal. He needs some action, you know…"

"You are unbelievable." she replied, walking away. Chad, however, grabbed her wrist, making her face him.

"Will you talk with her or not?" he insisted.

"Yes, I will…" she gave up, walking away. She went to the patio, where she found Kate and Lindsey, sitting on a bench. "Hi!"

"It took you a while… Where were you?" Lindsey asked.

"Around. So… Are you going to the party tonight?"

"Of course!" she answered. Then, the two of them stared at Kate, who blushed.

"I have to study… The Biology test is in two days." she explained.

"So, you need to enjoy yourself at least for tonight! Come!" Hilary insisted. Kate frowned.  
"As long as I don't need to be there for too long…" she said.

"Great!" Lindsey celebrated.

"And you could invite your sister too." Hilary reminded, surprising them.

"Hil, you know Brooke doesn't really like parties… And, besides, she's spending a lot of time with Michelle now…"

"She can come too!"

"Oh… Well, in that case, I can try to convince them, I guess…" Kate said. Afterwards, she saw Jackie, sitting by herself and she felt sorry for her. Then, she turned around to face Hilary. "Hey, since we're inviting a lot of people, maybe Jackie can come too."

"Jackie Simmons? Why would she come?" she asked, offended.

"And why not?"

"Well… She shuts herself a lot and spends most of her time locked inside her house…" Lindsey reminded. "It's obvious she doesn't like to go out."

"I'll ask her if she wants to come." Kate said, very determined. She got up and approached the girl, who was surprised to see her. "Hi!"

"Oh… Hi, Kate… You talked with me twice in the same day, that must be a record…" she replied, focusing on her book again. Kate lowered her head.

"Look, I know we're not exactly friends, but… We're having a party tonight, at Hilary's house. You could come and, that way, you would spend some time with me and the others."

"Why are you inviting me?"

"Do I need a reason to do that?" she asked, without waiting for the answer. "The party begins at eleven o'clock, don't be late."

"But…" she said, but Kate was already far away.

After school, Kate ran to her house to talk with her sister about the party. She quickly went to the top floor and entered her sister's room. She did it so suddenly that Brooke, who was playing guitar, played the wrong chords.

"Sorry, but I need to talk with you!" she warned. Brooke raised an eyebrow.

"Did something happen?" she asked, concerned.

"No, nothing happened." Kate explained, lying on her sister's bed. "There's gonna be a party tonight at Hilary's…"

"Oh, yeah. I heard something about that."

"You could come."

"Yeah, I could… But I'm not really in the mood…"

"Come, it'll be fun. And you can bring Michelle!"

"Why would I bring Michelle? She doesn't even like parties…"

"Neither do you, so you'll keep each other company! What do you say?"

"Do I have to…?"

"Yes! Thanks, I'll call Hilary. And you, call Michelle!" she said, leaving. Brooke sighed and dialed Michelle's number.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey, Michelle. It's me. Look, Hilary's throwing a party at her house tonight and Kate suggested that you'd come with us."

"You're going too? That doesn't sound like you…"

"I made an exception."

"I should really study. You saw my great performance in the Calculus test today..:"

"Come, Michelle, really. I already told Kate that I would go and I don't be there all alone. Please, come."

"Okay… Are you gonna pick me up?"

"Yeah. See you later." Brooke said, hanging up.

Around eleven o'clock, everybody was at Hilary's:

"Well, she's here already." Chad said, approaching Tom, as he saw Michelle entering the living room with Brooke.

"Chad, you can't be serious. She's just a kid." Eric reminded.

"We made an agreement. Now, go talk with her." he insisted, pushing him in the girl's direction.

"Sorry!" he said, quickly. Michelle laughed.

"It's okay." she guaranteed, smiling. As he saw her leaving, Tom looked at Chad, who made him a signal to go on. He sighed and thought quickly of something to say to her.

"Hey, hum… Aren't you that super-clever girl that skipped three grades?" he asked.

"Two grades. And I wouldn't say 'super-clever'." she corrected, blushing. Tom smiled.

"I'm Tom." he introduced himself.

"And I'm-"

"Michelle, I know. What do you say about we go and get something to drink?" he suggested. Michelle hesitated.

"I… Hum…"

"I know you're not old enough for that, but neither am I. Trust me, it's cool." he insisted, giving her a glass. She took a while to grab it, but, as soon as she did that, she drank the whole thing in less than five seconds.

"Urgh, I'm feeling dizzy…" she mumbled. Tom raised an eyebrow and sat her down on the couch.

"I'll be right back, don't go anywhere." he said, walking away. Seconds later, Brooke showed up and sat next to her.

"I lost you out of my sight, where have you been?"

"Around. I met a boy named Tom, he was really nice…"  
"Tom Parker? Wait, are you drunk?"

"No. I just had a tiny, tiny glass, it was nothing special."

"Michelle! You know you can't drink!"

"Relax, Brooke, it was no big deal. And, besides, Tom says he'll be here in a minute."

"I'll get you some water, stay here." Brooke advised, leaving. As soon as she disappeared in the crowd, Tom appeared and sat next to her, with a glass on his hand.

"Here, this might help." he said, giving her the glass. Michelle drank it quickly and frowned.

"This doesn't taste like alcohol."

"That's because it isn't alcohol. It's water, Michelle."

"Let's go outside." she rambled, getting up. Tom was forced to go after her, to make sure nothing would happen.

As soon as they left, Brooke showed up, confused by not seeing her friend.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked, approaching her with Lindsey and Hilary.

"Michelle's drunk and I just lost her…"

"Michelle? Drunk? Well, that's a first…" Lindsey commented.

"What if something happened to her?"

"Relax, Michelle can take care of herself. Let's have some fun!" Hilary said, walking away. Brooke shook her head and kept on looking for Michelle. Just because her sister and her 'friends' gave up, doesn't mean she'll do the same.

In the meanwhile, Michelle and Tom were in the balcony, since Tom didn't want her to get out of the house like that.

"I shouldn't be here, you know…" she commented, sitting on the edge.

"Oh, yeah?"

"I should be studying, since I didn't do such a good job in the test today."

"I thought you were super-clever."

"I told you I'm not. I mean… When I was in my other grade, yeah, I was smarter than the others, but now things are so hard…"

"You're still clever, you'll catch up in no time."

"It's not just that. I have the feeling that more than half the school doesn't like me."

"Nonsense, what's not to like?" he commented. Michelle raised an eyebrow and just stared at him. She felt her cheeks getting hot and she realized that wasn't just because of the drink. She was really blushing. How could she like someone she barely knew…? Tom seemed to notice she was distracted. "Hey, is everything okay?"

Then, Michelle turned around to face him and kissed him. She didn't know exactly why she did it, but there was no turning back now. Tom was surprised, but he couldn't stop the kiss. He thought it was because of the deal he had made with Chad. But no… He didn't stop the kiss because he didn't want to.

"Can we go inside?" she asked. Tom nodded and held her hand, taking her back to the living room. But they didn't stop there. Instead, they kept on walking to the top floor and got into a room. Before he could say anything, Michelle closed the door and kissed him again. After a while, they were already on the bed and Tom had his hand underneath Michelle's shirt.

"Tom, wait. I don't…" she stuttered. She was afraid of telling him she didn't want to move on to that level. She was afraid of him walking away and leaving her all alone like she had been all this time.

"Sorry, I went too fast." he admitted, taking his hands off of her. "Which is ironic, since you were the one who kissed me."

"You're right... Keep going..." she said, closing her eyes. Tom just stared at her, surprised. After all, that was what Chad wanted him to do... And it was also what he wanted to do. But Michelle was drunk and it just wasn't right.

"Michelle, I can't."

"Why not?"

"You're drunk and you don't really want me to do this. It's not right..." he mumbled kissing her forehead and leaving. But, when he got out, he saw Chad right in front of him. He was caught off guard, so he decided to close the door immediately.

"Something tells me you didn't do what you needed to do...

"Chad, she's drunk."

"Even better, that way, it's not against her will."

"Are you serious? Do you think I'm that desperate to take advantage of the first drunk girl that hits on me?!"

"I was doing you favor. But if this is how you repay me, then I'll take care of her myself." Chad replied. Tom wanted to stop him, but he wasn't fast enough. He opened the door and walked in Michelle's direction, pushing on her onto the bed.

"Chad, wait!" he yelled. It was too hard for him to ignore Michelle's screams and her attempts of getting Chad off of her, but he was just too strong for her.

"Are you gonna do it, then?" Chad asked, coldly. Tom frowned and ended up nodding. Chad moved out of his way and he got on top of Michelle. She struggled, but she just couldn't realease herself. The tears kept running down her face and she didn't know what to do.

"I won't hurt you, I promise." he whispered in her ear, so Chad wouldn't hear him. Michelle realized there was something in his voice that made her want to believe in him, but she was too scare to think things through.

He started to take her clothes off and Michelle cried more and more. Chad ended up leaving and Tom waited a few seconds before he got off of Michelle. She slapped him really hard and he fell on the ground.  
"Michelle, wait!" he begged. She got dressed quickly and ran to the door.

"Stay away from me! I don't want to see you ever again!" she yelled, still crying. She ran out of there, and went downstairs, where she found Brooke.

"Hey, what happened? Why are you crying?" Brooke asked, concerned.

"Can we just go? Please."

"But-"

"Please, Brooke." she begged. Brooke nodded.

"Let's go." she said, putting her arm around her shoulders and leaving. They got to Michelle's house and she kept on crying. The two of them sat on the porch steps and Brooke pulled her closer, so that Michelle's head would be on her lap, while Brooke ran her fingers through her friend's hair. As soon as Michelle calmed down, he was going to found out what had happened.

I'll be out for three weeks (more or less), so the fanfic will be R&R - sorry '


End file.
